Nazareth teen in sex assault ordered to get treatment

A Nazareth teenager who sexually assaulted a fellow student must spend at least six months undergoing psychiatric treatment in a Northampton County program for juvenile sex offenders.

Judge William F. Moran said Monday "there are multiple issues that must be dealt with" in the case of 17-year-old Anthony Gentile, found delinquent in September of the attack on a 16-year-old girl on July 4 in Nazareth. A rape charge against Gentile was dismissed, but he was found delinquent of sexual assault and indecent assault.

Moran made his ruling after tearful testimony from the girl, who said the attack has altered her life and ruined her reputation.

"My life as I knew it was taken away from me," she said, reading a letter to the judge. "School became a battlefield," she added, saying friends turned their backs on her. The girl said she has since transferred to another school.

Gentile will spend two weeks in the county's juvenile detention center before transferring to the sex offender program. With his family members -- as well as the victim and her family -- looking on, deputies handcuffed him and led him away. His case will come up for review after six months, said Juvenile Probation Officer Ben Rea.

Defense attorney Douglas Tkacik had asked Moran to allow Gentile to spend the holidays with his family until a space opened for him in the treatment program.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Carroll said it would be wrong to allow Gentile out, saying he hadn't expressed any remorse for the crime and that the victim's home has been vandalized since Gentile's arrest. Other people in the community have worn T-shirts proclaiming Gentile's innocence.

"His buddies have decided to wage a war against the victim and her family," said Carroll, who argued that releasing Gentile would be "an insult and a threat to his community."

Tkacik said the vandalism wasn't part of the record, and that Gentile, who has been in a juvenile treatment center for the last four months, can't be held responsible for what other people do.

Moran agreed there was no evidence tying Gentile to the vandalism. But he admonished people engaged in the "T-shirt wars" to stop and allow the "healing process" to begin.